Svengali: When Your Mind Is No Longer Your Own | Derren Brown

[Music] Svengali is best known as the evil hypnotist of George Demorier's 1894 novel Trilby. Demoria most likely took the name from another enigmatic character, a mute six-year-old boy who performed in Hungary a 100 years before.

During his performances, Svengali would tap out letters on a board and through some secret ability would even appear to possess members of the audience. But what most intrigued his spectators was the fact that Svengali was not made of flesh and blood like you or me. He was a machine, an automaton built in 1760 by an artist called Hugo Fon Lavasht. Hugo had modeled the features of his creation on a death mask of his own son whom he'd lost to influenza at the age of six.

Many speculated as to what trick lay behind his machine. Eventually, Fon Lavash hid it from the prying public and seemed to enter an obsessive private relationship with his fabricated son, and rather than sleep, he would work in dim candlelight to the extent that he went blind within a few years. Unable then to operate his beloved automaton, he soon became paranoid and deluded and lost everything he had. Fonvash died penniless at the turn of the 19th century. The doll passed through the hands of his creditors and later a small number of collectors. 5 years ago, it was bought by an anonymous bidder at an auction in Philadelphia. Its current whereabouts remain a closely guarded secret.

[Music] Thank you very much [Music] indeed. Thank you. Good evening. Thank you. I propose a game. Let's play a game. I propose a game. Something's missing. What's missing? My shoe. Very good. Well observed. I'm only wearing one shoe. I have here a shiny shoe. Here a fairly stinky sock. Where is my other shoe? I hear you ask. Thank you. Six people. I'll tell you where my other shoe is. I have hidden my other shoe somewhere in Nottingham. More specifically, in this box here, or if you like, in this box here, or if you prefer, in that box there. So, here's the game. You try and guess which box contains my shoe. If you guess correctly, you win my shoe. You can have it. And I'll perform the whole of the rest of the show wearing only one shoe. That's the game. The game has a name. The name of the game is Darren. Please tell me where I might find your other shoe. So, without any further ado, let's play a round of Darren. Please tell me where I might find your other shoe. Please tell me where I might find Darren's other shoe if you'd be so kind. Please tell me where I might find his other shoe if you don't mind. Okay, box number one, box number two, box number three. You're going to vote as an audience with your applause. So, applaud if you think it's in box number one. Good. Applaud if you think it's in box number two. Very good. And if you think it's in number three, applaud now. Number three is wrong as I'm afraid was your second choice. Number two also wrong. It was in fact over here in box number one. Never mind. Give yourselves a hand. You did your best. It's not too difficult to manipulate an entire crowd. But the fewer Robbie there are, the more of a challenge it is.

So let's make this a little more difficult and do this with just a couple of you. Put your hand up if you are here with your partner. All right. So, I've never quite managed to get this up into the balcony on a first attempt before. Oh, yes. Up you get. Stand up. Stand up. Both of you up. Going to get a microphone, too. Should be one just coming along there now. What are your names? Louise and Ian. Louise and Ian. How long you been together for Louise and Ian? If those are your real names. Nearly 10 years. Nearly 10 years. Excellent. Good. All right. Excellent. Let's play another round of Darren. Please tell me where I might find your other shoe. Please tell me where I might find Darren's other shoe if you'd be so kind. Please tell me where I might find his other shoe if you don't mind. Okay, Louise and Ian. Ian and Louise, I'm going to want a joint decision from you. So, one you both agree on. And obviously, it goes without saying it is a completely three choice. Now, what's interesting is this. Ian is on the left. Louise is on the right. So, we'll be naturally drawn to box number one, the one on the left, and Louise will be naturally drawn to box number three, the one on the right, because we're drawn to things closer to us. But the reason why this is interesting is that um I want a joint decision. So, if between them they go for number one, we can presume that Ian is the dominant partner in this relationship. Because Louise will have submitted to his natural instinct. And likewise, if they go for number three, we can presume that Louise is the decision maker in this household. Is that clear both of you, first of all, that we are judging you? Yes. Yes. Yes. academic in this case because we can hear that he's taken the microphone and decided to speak for both of them. Uh they could of course go for number two although that to me would suggest a lack of leadership in the household. Um any kids then tend to grow up without a strong sense of a moral framework. They end up uh lazy and listless and what we might think of nowadays um as drug addicts sadly. So entirely up to you. One, no, or three. Joint decision, please. And Ian don't stand for any nonsense. Three. Is that a joint decision? No. Right. Secret of 10 happy years, though. Uh, go on. Joint decision, please. You can have number three if you like. I just want a joint decision. Number one. Louise. Is that a joint decision? I'm happy to go with that. Happy to go with number one. Okay. Number one is wrong. So, what's it going to be? [ __ ] kids or Louise is the best? Three. Three. Do you want to change your mind? No. No. Ah, you should always change your mind. I'm sorry. You were wrong. You should always change your mind. It was in number two. Give them a hand, though. I'm sorry. You should always change your mind. And there's a good reason why. There's a good reason why you should always change your mind, which I will explain to you, cuz I think these things are important, and you won't hear it anywhere else.

So, let's try this with the most difficult situation of all now, which is just with one person downstairs in the stalls. Put your hand up if you are a lady here for your birthday. Put your hands up. If I throw this out, can you get that to somebody with their hand up? Doesn't need to be the Oh, beautifully done. Up again, madam. What's your name? Abby. Abby. Abby. Now, you did catch that right out the air, but we don't know each other, do we? There's nothing going on. Abby. All right. When's your birthday? Today. Your uh Sunday. Sunday. A round of applause for Abby. It was her birthday on Sunday. Okay, that's enough. Got to crack on. Abby, you need to make a decision of one, two, or three. So, you can't change your mind. Going to ask you to write it down. There's an usher out there in the aisle with a pen and paper. Would you mind Abby? is heading out and we'll play one final round of Darren. Please tell me where I might find your other shoe. Darren's footwear must be somewhere. Where could his footwear be? Darren's footwear must be somewhere. But where specifically? Okay, Abby, have you made your mind up? Yeah. Okay. So, let me tell you what was going on in my head as I put it in one of these boxes. In round number one, it was in box number one. Yes. And then round number two was in box number two, which leaves box number three is the obvious choice for round number three. But too obvious. You might think we can disregard it because Abby is doing her best not to appear obvious. But that's where it gets interesting because she will disregard it. But the moment she disregards it, she is then playing the role of somebody trying to catch me out. And then it ceases to be a random one in three choice. And it becomes the far more predictable choice of what does somebody do when they're trying to catch me out, which of course is to go for the most obvious choice because it will seem less obvious specifically because of its overabundance of obviousity. So I'm hoping that you, as everybody does, went for number three. Which one did you go for? Three. Number three. Good. All right. So, as did they. So, I'm going to do exactly the same thing. I'll give you a chance to change your mind. I'll show you as I did them. It's not in box number one. All right. Just as I showed uh Louise and Ian up there. So, it's not in box number one. You now have a choice. You can either stick with three or change your mind to number two. Similar choice to what they had up there. Now, your gut will tell you, as it did with them, to stick to stick with number three because you think, well, it's 50/50, isn't it? Now, so if I change your numbers right the first time, I'd kick myself, so I might as well stick. But here's the point. Two boxes does not necessarily mean 50/50. You're actually twice as likely to win now if you change your mind to number two, which is counterintuitive, but it is true. So, let me explain to you why this is true. Imagine there were a 100 boxes. 100 boxes, only one of which contains the shoe. This is why you should always change your mind. All right? And I ask Abby to guess which one she thinks it's in. Now, because there's 100, we can presume she'll be wrong, right? It's only one in 100 chance she'll be right. So, let's say she went for number one. All right. Now, obviously, I know which one uh contains the shoe, and clearly we can presume it's going to be in one of the other 99 here. And I only want to leave her with one other choice. So, I start eliminating. I eliminate 98 of these boxes by opening them up and showing them empty, leaving her number one and for some reason number 84. That's the one I don't open up. You now have a choice. Do you stick with number one, the one you plucked out the air at random, or do you go for number 84, the only one that I didn't open up? Clearly, it is in number 84. Yes, it's in number 84. So, two boxes, but self-evidently not 50/50. And the math is very straightforward. We already know number one is a one in a 100 choice. That's going to be wrong. Yes, that's the wrong one. Meaning number 84 now has to be a 99 out of 100 choice. Yes, it's going to be the wrong one. Exactly the same here with only three boxes. Your choice here is a one in three choice cuz you plucked it out the air at random, which means that this one following the elimination is now two out of three. You are twice as likely to win if you change your minds. You can either stick with your gut and stick with number three, or you can trust the maths and change to number two. But you're going to get it wrong cuz everybody does. So, let's put some money on it cuz it was your birthday on Sunday. What have we got? 501 100 155£55 says you will get this wrong. What are you going to do? Are you going to stick with number three and trust your gut or are you going to trust the maths and change number two? And I'll tell you Abby, no one ever changes their mind. I'll stick with my gut. Sticking with number three. Yes. Yeah. And you're wrong. I'm sorry. I did everything I could to help. You should always trust the mouse. Give her a hand. It was in number two. I'm sorry. You do not win the shoe. You do not win the shoe. And I'm afraid I'm afraid birthday or no, Abby, you do not win the fiverr either. Nope. Not even real money. Thank you for coming. Thank you.

There are, and I was just told this number before I came out, 1,499 of you here tonight. 1499. Remember that number? 1499 of you here tonight. So, thank you for that. That means you packed the place out. And uh before the show started, some of you wrote down your most embarrassing secret confessions. Thank you for doing this. Those of you that did, you might have missed it if you came in late. People wrote down their most embarrassing secret confessions. Gentlemen there at the end. What's your name? Milan. Milan. Milan, will you take one out for me? Have a rummage around and keep it keep it folded up and just seal it straight in there. Milan, so you know, nobody can read it. No one can get to it and you can't lose it, Milan, like the lady did the other night. So, thank you. So, we need we only do need one of these confessions. Thank you all for doing it. Those of you that did, we do only need one and Milan has it down there. We will come back to that later. Now, I just need to talk to all of you. Every single one of you. So, right up at the back of the balcony, the back of the upper circle, the dress circle, the stalls, right at the sides. Every single one of you, please get in your minds now your most embarrassing secret confession. Do that for me now, please. Each and every one of you. Good. 1499 of you here. Each one of you is represented by a small plastic disc. 1499 plastic discs. Each one of which bears a seat number. Can you tell where this is going? You need to know your seat number and your seat row. Would you stand up and check for me? We're going to bring the lights up. Just stand up and check. Quickly check where you're sat. Seat number and seat row. Please make sure you know the row. So, I'm going to choose one of you at random. I'll pluck out a seat number from the tombola. Whoseever seat number that is, I want you to stand up and identify yourself. and I will then try and read from you your most embarrassing private secret confession. I'll get as much as I can and then you can confess in front of 1498 other people and feel so much better about yourself for doing it. So, here we go. [Music] It's a red one. Red ones are downstairs. Okay. Now, can you read this? Can you read that there? That is Ro J. Yes, you can read that. Ro J. It's exciting, isn't it? Ro J. The only row not laughing. Specifically J7. Can you read that? Yes. See that on camera? That is J7 up you get. If you're in J7, up you get. Let's see you. Let's get you on camera out there. What's your name? Hello, I'm Ana Makavoy. Ana Makavoy. Oh, thank you. Full name. Always handy girl. Ana. Ana. Nice to meet you. So, good. What I need you to do is to run it through in your mind like a movie in your head. All right. Whatever it is, just play it back through. Make sure you bring all the feelings back, too. Good. As you do that, I'm going to ask you a couple of questions, but I do need you just to keep the the feelings going in your head. All right. Another thing that's been going on here, which is interesting, which I'll just explain. So, don't move a muscle. She started this with a hand down by her side. Don't know if you remember. Then you brought your hand up to here. Now your starting point for holding a mic is like this, right? Both hands on the mic. But what tends to happen is that once the mind goes to an area of the body that's involved in the confession, there's normally a part of the body. Normally one hand starts to give away where that is. So down here first, which sort of, you know, could have meant like perhaps the sort of sexy area or maybe the sort of unpleasant air at the back. Um, but then the hand coming up to the stomach does suggest that we might be dealing with something in the sort of toilet stomach kind of. Does that make sense? And the kind of stomach area and the laughter's confirming it. Okay. So, I'm imagining this is perhaps a toilet related thing. Don't say anything. Just think whether or not I'm right. Either we or poo. One of those two things. Just say it. Don't say anything. Just think in your mind. We poo. Just think which one's right. We poo. You farted. You farted. This is a misplaced windbreaking situation somewhere where you shouldn't have done it. So, this could either be at home, it could be out with friends, it could be at work, it could Oh, okay. At work. So, you did this at work. Oh, okay. That's quite good. So, let's think about what you might do for a living. Don't say anything. Just think about uh okay you you probably you're right you're used to standing in front of a crowd every day but in a soft way in a way that you're getting people to relate you not in a big kind of you're not doing the sort of military thing of hands behind the back teacher maybe. Yes. Yes. You're a teacher. Did you Did you fart on a pupil's head and walk away? That's exactly what I did. That's exactly what you Thank you. You can sit yourself down. Well done.

Okay. Thank you for that. Let me hand out some of these. Uh let me hand out some of these. Just some pens and paper. Would you just pass those to people around you, please? Just grab a pen and paper, please. Quick as you can. You're not going to come up on stage, so don't be embarrassed. Just Thank you. Do you mind picking those up and just pass them around? So, just in those areas there, take a bit of paper and a pen. All you got to do is just write down the name of somebody famous. That's all I want you to do. Please write the name of somebody famous. And I mean mega star famous. Please, not me. It's embarrassing, but anybody else, but really well known. When you are done, fold it up. Good. While you're doing that, would you put your hands up for me downstairs? If you've always wanted to be able to paint, but you can't. Put your hands up. You'd love to be able to paint. You just just can't. Okay, good. That's loads of you. Keep your hands up. Can we just get that to somebody, please, with their hands up? Give it a throw. Throw it. That's going to be you up. You get What's your name, sir? Anthony. Anthony. So, you don't paint? Not at all. But you would like to be able to genuinely. So, now I have to introduce you to a net. Can we have a net out on stage, please? Can we have a net? Come on. Come on. This is a net. Come on. What? Very simple play on words. Could you drop them in for me? Just drop the uh papers in. Where are they? Just Thank you very much. Lovely. Drop them in for me. Thank you so much. Drop that in there. Some over here as well. Thank you very much. Drop them in for me. Cheers. Thank you. And some more there. Thank you. Any others? Is that the lot? Okay. Your name again was Anthony. Anthony, would you get yourself at the bottom of these steps here? Give Anthony a hand. Up your card, [Applause] Anthony. I just want you to take one out. Don't let anybody see what's on it, but I need you to open it up and just give me a yes or no as to whether or not you know who the person is. Because sometimes people think they're famous names and they're not that famous. Don't let anybody see, Anthony. Just a yes or no. Do you know who the person is? Yeah. Fold the paper up, put it in your pocket, get it properly out the way, and then get yourself up here. Anthony again, ladies and gentlemen, up you come. Stand over here for me. Thank you. So, Anthony, have you ever tried painting or drawing a portrait? Uh, no. No. Okay, good. Yeah. Now, that reaction, take that in your left hand for me. That reaction is what a lot of people do. I do paint portraits, but I'm aware that people do find them difficult, find them quite intimidating. And the reason why I think is that we get very caught up in all the psychological baggage that comes with the fact that it is a face that we're trying to paint. So there are tricks, there are things that you do that just psychologically dissociate you from the process. So painting upside down is one thing. Another trick, which is what we're going to do, is to split the process into two. So you're going to do one half of this, which is just to picture this famous person. All you got to do is picture that person in your mind as clearly as you can. My job is to then get what's in your head and get it on the canvas. That make sense? So you're going to paint the picture. You're just going to paint it through me. So, I need to tune in with you first, Anthony. Just hold on there. Hold a little tighter there. And take a look at my right hand here. And I want you now in your mind to start to will this hand to move. And you got to instruct me now in your mind clearly in your head which way to go. Keep focusing. If I go the wrong way, you've got to think no. You've got to think no. Just nice and clearly. Nice and clearly. Just think which way. Think which way. That's good. That's good. Just really clearly just mentally push or pull this hand now in the right direction. Use your willpower. It won't move unless you will it to move. Focus on it. Think of one of those directions. Go really clearly. Clear. Much clearer in your head, please. Much much clear. You're thinking this way here. Yep. You are good. Now you get the idea. Now you get the idea. We're going to do exactly the same thing but with a face. Are you ready? Yes. Sure. Good. And let's go. Come around here for me. So pillowcase is very important for a couple of reasons. First of all, I don't want you thinking that I'm just looking for Anony's reactions. I'm not. But more importantly, um, it means that Anthony won't be able to see what I'm painting, so he doesn't have to feel any responsibility for how well or for how badly it's going. What I need you to do, you can drop that hand down for me now, is to picture this face, this person's face clearly in front of you on a screen. As you do that now, keep that image big and bright and clear. Hold on again here for me. Hold on again there. You're holding on to my wrist again. Yep. Just in case you're wondering. Um, imagine for me that you've got like TV controls and you can just you can just start to turn up the brightness a little as you look at this picture. So you turn up the brightness, becomes a little brighter. That's good. So it's nice and clear and the whole picture just moves into focus. That's good. Just that's good. Now you're going to start to move your eye your mind's eye slowly across the picture and you're going to be showing me where to paint. Just start to think. Just start think where I'm going. You're going to give me some uh That's good. We're just getting a s That's good. Just a sense of a shape or something. Some white on black here. So, just focus around the white areas. That's good. That's good. We're just starting to get a shape here. That's good. Okay. Where are we going now? Just lovely. Good. Okay. Might need a bit more detail from you at some point, Anthony. Um take a little step back there if you don't mind. Is it the queen? No. You're doing well. You're doing well. You're doing really well. Okay, let's just go the top. Give me a sense of a shape up the top. Just give me a sense of something up there. What are we doing? Okay. Okay, [Music] good. That's good. Where are we going? Down here. Okay, just that's good. Slow down. Slow down. Slow down. Take a little step this way. Come in a bit. Come in a bit. [Music] Okay. Okay. Just keep That's very good. That's good. You're joining up in That's good. Good. So, keep it nice and clear. Nice and clear and vivid. All right. Hang on. Let's go back to the middle. Give me something in the middle. Right in the middle. All right. What's here? There's something there. Show me what's [Music] there. Okay. Come over the other side. Something there as well. Okay. I don't know what that is. Oh, go up the top of it. Okay. Just keep There's something up there. Okay. I see what you're doing. Can we stop the music for a second? Stop the music for a second. I think I know who this is. I think I know who this is. Um, be careful you don't say who it is by accident. But am I right in thinking this is not at least not principally a you know it's not it's not like a big name Hollywood actor. It's not quite that is it? No. No. It's somebody in a different um area of life and somebody who is uh male but dead now. Yes. Yep. Yeah. Okay. I think I know where we're going with this. I'm going to just move you back. There's a chair behind you. I'm going to guide you to it. Got it. Just there. Right. Sit yourself down. Anthony, you've done this so well. Um, I'm going to carry on without you. After a couple of minutes though, I'm going to take the pillowcase off and I need you at that point to shout the name and don't look at what I've painted until after you've shouted the name. You've done this really well. I think what it was, you were just taking something a bit more literally than I meant it. And that slightly threw me. But, uh, I think I can finish this off on my own now. Right. Uh, okay. Here we go. Let's try and [Music] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Music] Okay, shout the name. Elvis Presley. Elvis Presley. Anthony, fantastic. Thank you so much, Anthony. Everybody, beautifully done. Thank you. Good.

Thank you very much. Something you need to know about the intervals. Uh that'll be coming up in a few minutes. Uh first of all, just those of you upstairs, before you head off, you will see under your seat, you've probably noticed them already, there are pens and papers. If you want to take part in this, find a pen and paper and then before you leave your seats, take the pen, put it on the paper, and you're going to write a digit, a single digit between zero and nine. Don't think about it first. This is important. Put the pen on the paper and then write whatever naturally kind of emerges from your hand at that point. When you've done that, bring the paper back with you for the second half. You can go off and get a drink after you've done that and bring the paper back with you for the next half. But before we do that, we have one last confession with Milan down here. Would you stand up, Milan? Take it out the envelope, please. Read it to yourself. Get it in your head. Now, in a minute, the land will tell you all what this confession is. One of you upon hearing it will think to yourself. Do not react. Do not react. Don't give me or anybody else any indication where you are in this room. Give an absolute poker face. All right. Milan, have you read it a few times now? Yes. Yes. Okay. Would you be able to say it without physically reading it off the paper now? Yes. Yes. Okay. In that case, can you fold it up, put it away in the envelope? Sometimes people write their names on and things like that. I don't want to actually see the thing, but just get get it out the way. Good. So look in your own words or word for word if you can remember what's the confession called wanking in detention. What? One more time. One more time. Cold wanking in detention. Thank you. You may sit down. One of you here tonight, one of you was caught vunking. Filthy. One of you was caught wanking in detention. Let's find out which one of you that was. Could you all stand up, please? Everybody stand up again. Happy. Oh, guilt's a funny thing. When we start to feel a bit of guilt or a bit of shame, there are certain things that we do reliably. What we tend to do, for example, we tend to bring our hands up to the side of our face. That's a classic sign of shame. Hand coming up to the side of the face. So, one of you right now feeling that shame won't quite know what to do with your hands. Ironically, uh, which was probably the problem. Uh, okay. I'm I'm presuming I'm presuming this is a guy's confession. On the balance of probability, it would be. So, all the women can sit down for now. I may come back to some ladies later, but for now, uh, just stick with the guys. Okay, good. The other thing is you won't know where to look. People when they're trying to hide something always make too much eye contact like that gentleman there. It's a bit creepy. Uh so the fact that it would be referred to as detention as opposed to when I was at school suggests you're probably still fairly young. So I would say you can sit down if you are 25 or over. Sit down. Otherwise stay standing. Okay. I'm looking for five signs of guilt. So, starting at the top, arms tightly folded across his body, that is sign number one. Clear as day, you can stay standing for us. Uh, thank you. Yes, too late to change. Um, coming along here. Normally by this point, if you did have your arms folded, you're the guilty party. You would have unfolded them by now. So, I'm also conversely looking for signs of sort of forced openness. So, the guy there standing in the black t-shirt with his hands sort of standing by his sides, looking a little bit uneasy. You can stay standing for me, too. Otherwise, that layer can sit down too. Dress circle. Uh I think oh maybe guy there as well with his hands sort of clasped in front of him just over there to the right. Uh it's just the posture you're just giving it. Okay. So that other than that you can sit down. Okay. Coming down here. Okay. There's a little group of you there. I want all that little group standing there. I'm hoping to god it was all of you in detention. Um uh and uh I think apart from that I'd like the last three rows to remain standing. So I just can't see back there. So I think that is Tu and V I think to remain standing. Otherwise you can sit down apart from those people. All right. Uh let's go. Guy on the end of this row in the uh check shirt and the white t-shirt. Excellent. What's your name? Jack. Jack. Just say it's not me. It's not my confession. It's not me. It's not my You can stay standing for us, Jack. Stay right where you are. Uh maybe the guy next to you as well. It's not me. It's not my confession. Not me. It's not my confession. Next guy. It's not me. It's not me. Guy on the end. It's not me. It's not me. Right. You stay standing and you say standing. Jack at the end. Let's uh Otherwise, the ones in the middle can sit down there. Let's just go at the back. Let me do a few at the back. There's a guy in the So, right. White shirt. Right. Right. At the end of there. White shirt. What's your name? Amen. Ben, just say it's not me. It's not me. All right. Okay. It's got to be one of you three, isn't it? Either one of you two here or I think I I can't. I think it was Ben right at the back in the white shirt. So, if you two can you two come in closer to each other so you can share a microphone. And uh can you come around and just come into the aisle? I need to get you in the light so I can see you clearly. Guy in the black. You can sit down. Everyone else can sit down apart from these three. These three men are definitely hiding something. But only one of them, I believe, was caught celebrating himself during what should be a period of punishment. So, your names again, Jack. Was it Jack? Oh, yeah. Jack and Alex. Ben, just into the mic. Say it wasn't me. Wasn't me. Alex, it wasn't me. It wasn't me. Jack, it wasn't me. Wasn't me. Sit down, Jack. Alex, it wasn't me. It wasn't me. I promise it wasn't me. I promise it wasn't me. I swear to God it wasn't me. I swear to God it wasn't me. Just raise one hand for me. Raise one hand. I swear on my mother's life I was never caught wanking in detention. I swear on my mother's life I was never caught wanking in detention. It wasn't me. It was not me. Keep going. It wasn't me. It wasn't me. Loud and clear. It wasn't me. It wasn't me. It wasn't me. It wasn't me. It wasn't me. It wasn't me. Sit down. Don't say a word. Don't say a word. I've asked 1498 people to sit down in this room. Ben, I want a simple yes or no answer. Were you or were you not on at least one occasion? Caught in some way fiddling with yourself in detention. Was that your confession? Yes or no? Yes. Yes. You can sit yourself down then. You need to go and get a drink. You can probably all deliver the drink. So, while you go and get yourselves a drink, I'll put the rest of you out of your misery. See you back here in 20 minutes. Thank you. Thank you.

If you missed the beginning of this show, if you missed the film at the very start, just let me explain briefly again that the name Svengali goes back beyond the novel Trilby that made it famous to being the name of an automaton. And an automaton is an early robot. And this one was built in 1760 by a Hungarian called Hugo Fon Lavasht. And these automatons were entertainment. They played instruments and so on. But Svengali did something that terrified people in its day. And it looked like a little boy, specifically the dead son of its inventor. He modeled the likeness on a death mask of his own son that he made when his son died and then became so obsessed with perfecting that likeness that he drove himself mad. Lost everything he had. And after he died, the doll passed through the hands of various collectors, people in inner magic circles, occultists, all of whom were obsessed with discovering Svengali's secrets. 50 years ago it disappeared completely. No one knew where it was. 5 years ago it turned up at an auction in Philadelphia where it was bought by an anonymous bidder. That anonymous bidder was me and I have Svengali here tonight to perform for you. So he's what's known as a true automaton. A true automaton means he's completely self-contained. There is no one inside or outside operating him. He contains over 150 yards of brass tubing, over 3,000 cogs that make him work, and he wouldn't normally perform for an audience this size. It would be 30 or 40 of you at the most. So, we have a camera set up so that you can get a better view of him. So, I spent the last four years restoring him. He needed a lot of work and a lot of love. The winding happens before the show. Takes about 6 minutes. This is just the final tightening that does need to be done now. But following his restoration, he is now back in his original performing [Music] state. This I find extraordinary. I ring a bell and a piece of clockwork responds to the sound of the bell. It knows that the bell has been rung. Now, we've had his own sounds amplified. There's a microphone in there just so that you can hear him. But he responds to the sound of the bell. Watch. So people began to believe that this doll had some kind of supernatural ability. And there were stories of people at the back of the demonstration saying the doll had possessed them, had taken them over, and they'd become catatonic, unable to move. And Favash encouraged this belief that the doll could possess people. He became something of a charlatan in his later years. And the act would include a demonstration of a member of the audience possessed by the doll. That's what we're going to do now. Do not take part in this if you have any trouble standing. If you're not completely steady on your feet, if you have any respiratory problems, if you have any condition that might affect your hands or arms, and if you have a severe phobia of needles or injections, do not take part. Otherwise, Otherwise, take a look at his right [Applause] hand. Now, the hand there you see with a maker's mark stamped onto the palm. It's carved from one piece of solid wood. So, those fingers are locked together. They do not come apart. All of you, please, if you're taking part, bring up your own right hand. Bring it up in front of you and take a look at the same symbol that's been stamped onto your palm. And then close your eyes. Squeeze that hand together. Keep your fingers extended. Do not clench your fist. Lock the hand tighter and tighter into place. Good. So tight now. So tight that on the count of three. 1 2 3. But the more you try now to unlock that hand now harder and harder. The more it locks, doesn't it? The hand just keeps unlocking tighter and harder. Now there will be some people whose fingers will have come apart, they can drop their hands down. But the rest of you, the more you try to unlock that hand in front of you now, the more it keeps unlocking and sticking tighter and tighter. In a moment, I'll tell you to open your eyes. When you do open your eyes in a moment, the moment you see it, it will stick twice as much because your conscious mind becomes aware of it, too. It just sticks twice as much. Are you ready? Do it now. Open your eyes. Take a look at it. You'll see what I mean. I want you to show everybody else how good you are at this. And stand up. You must stand if your hand is locked. Keep it at eye level. Locked out there in front of you. Stand up. All of you, please. If your hands are stuck. Good. Up again. Good. You must stand. Look at the doll. Watch what happens when I ring the bell. When I ring the bell, the doll's arm is going to come up through the air. Your own arm will rise in sympathy with the doll's and it can come right up above your head. Are you ready now? There it goes. Just let it happen. Just let it happen. Up and up. Just like Good. There it goes. Lovely. Just let it happen. Take its own time. Might take a moment. Then just up it goes. That's good. And it can stick right up there as it goes right up there. It'll just stick right up there. And as you do this, as you do this, take a look at the doll in here. This little pouch is a 200-year-old lady's handkerchief. They used to use this in the act. And embroidered on one corner are two initials. The doll is about to put into your head the correct initials that are embroidered on this handkerchief. Are you ready? The way he'll do it is by putting into your mind when I ring the bell again. The image of someone that you know who has the correct initials. Are you ready? It happens now. In your mind now, the image of someone you know in your mind now. Remember their initials. That person that came into your mind, remember their initials. Remember their initials. The arm locked into place. Now, if you try and unlock it, it just keeps unlocking and sticking tighter and tighter into place. What's this like? What does this feel like? Weird. It is weird, isn't it? And you can really try, but the more you try to bring it down, the more it just keeps unlocking. What's this like? Tell me. Terrifying. And what if you try and force it down, what happens? It hurts. What's your name? Matt. Just come around here for me. Look at me. Look at me. Do not look at the doll. Good. You're going to keep looking this way. Your arm's going to stay stuck where it is. The rest of you, though, when I ring the bell, he lets go. Your arm comes down. Your fingers come apart. And that happens now. There it goes. There it goes. Arm comes down. Fingers come apart. You can sit yourselves down. Now you've got two hands. Give Matt a hand as you bring him up on stage. Up you come, Matt. Up you come. Okay, Matt. You're going to come and stand over here for me. Come and stand on this cross just there and turn and face me. Turn and face me, Matt. All right. Now, listen. A couple of things are going to happen very quickly here. Just look up into the palm of your hand. Just start to feel your eyes getting a little heavy around now. That's good. And as I touch on the hand, your eyes just close. And then as the hand comes down, you can just sink and tumble and fall right the way down. Right the way deep, right the way sound asleep. But I want the rest of you to take a look at his feet. You see, Singal's feet don't move. These are locked into place. In the same way, Matt, you can think about your right foot now. And you can just let him, as you think about it, just take hold of that right foot. And as he does that, that right foot just locks into place. Your left foot, you can move. You can do what you like with your left foot. In fact, if you try and take a step forward, you find you don't get very far cuz you can only move one foot. You can move the left foot, but the right one just locks. That's good. As soon as you try and move it, it just locks even tighter. That's very good. And let's bring this left foot back. And now he takes that foot as well. And now both feet stick. Both feet now stick into the floor. If you try and unlock either foot, they just keep on pressing. The more you try, the more they stick. The more they just root down into the stage. That's very good, Matt. When I touch you on the head in a moment, you can open your eyes cuz you're not hypnotized. So, you can open your eyes and look at me. I'm going to touch you here on the throat in a second. When I do, your throat and vocal cords are going to stick. You'll find that you can't talk. If you look at the doll, he can't talk. You see, his mouth doesn't even move. That's why he needs the alphabet board to tap out his answers. His mouth doesn't even move. When I touch you here, your throat and vocal cords will stick. When you try and say a word, nothing comes out. And that happens. Look at me now. Now, if you try and say something, anything you like, you see the more you try, see, you can hear, you can hear him breathe, he can make, but if he tries to say a word, nothing happens. How does it feel? And if you think about your right hand at the moment, Matt, that is locked into place. You see? Keep your eyes open. I want you to see what's going on here. If he tries to move that right arm, if he tried to bring it up like this, nothing happens. If he tries to move it, if of his own accord, nothing happens. It just locks there. Yet, when I ring the bell, the doll's right arm comes up. Watch what his right arm does. And it'll lock into place. If he tries to force it down on his own, nothing happens. It just locks tighter. That's good. You see, Matt, you can try, but it just locks. Yet, when I ring the bell again, That's very good, Matt. Excellent. And now I just want you to close your eyes and just relax and sink down into that sleep state. That's good. Nice and deeply. Very good. Now we're going to bring in a chair behind you. I'm going to pop you back in this chair. That means he's going to release the tension. You can relax so you can sit straight back down. There's a chair right behind you. That's very good. Excellent. Let's just wheel you around here.

You're doing very good. Your eyes can remain closed, and you can just sleep nice and deeply for me as I talk to the audience.

So, a lot of this was really interesting to me, but it could be explained. It could be explained through suggestion. Namely, that if the subject, like Matt here, can see the doll's arm coming up, for example, that his unconscious mind knows to copy it. What was really interesting to me is where similar things would happen, but where the subject couldn't see the doll, so it couldn't be explained through suggestion.

So, at the moment, his eyes are closed. I want you to sit up nice and straight for us. And that can't see anything that's important. His eyes are closed.

[Music]

All right, Matt, that'll seem like an odd question to you, I'm sure, but if you felt any poking or tapping, I need you to just raise one arm up in front of you just as a clear signal. Good. Okay, that's going to be your signal from now on that you can feel this. But actually, just while you're doing that, just bring that arm up. Just show us exactly where you felt it. Let me just check this. Excellent. Very good indeed.

Okay, so we'll do it again. Each time that we do this, I want you just to signal to the audience when you feel it. It'll be in a different place and a different feeling. Uh, now when we do it, that doesn't matter. Just a nice clear signal to the audience. Just raise one arm straight up clearly in the air out in front of you. The moment that you feel this here. Very good. Excellent. Raise your hand when you feel this here.

[Music]

Very good. And it wasn't just a question of these simple demonstrations of a physical rapport that springs up between the doll and the subject. This got taken to a level that became too much for the Catholic Church. In 1873, they exercised, which is extraordinary. It's the only time in the history of the Catholic Church that a doll has gone through the entire ritual of exorcism reserved for a human being. And it was for precisely the demonstration that I will show you now.

Okay, that's very good. Matt, let's just put you right there. And I'm going to give you a couple of things to hold on to. Thank you very much. Uh, now this is a blackboard. So, if I rest that there, you can bring that arm up and just hold on to that there for me. That's very good. Excellent. That can stay just there for me. And in your other hand, a piece of chalk. Let me give you that. You can just grip hold of that. Lovely.

Now, you can leave your arm uh just where it is, but just pay attention now to the feelings in your left arm and your left hand. As the doll takes full control, you'll start to feel little movements and tugs and twitches in the arm that don't come from you, but it can just remain where it is for the moment. The rest of you, included in the sail of the doll were a couple of other items of significance. Uh, in particular, this handkerchief here. Now, I will show this to you. Please don't say anything out loud. Obviously, he can't see anything, but I don't want him hearing either. The initials on the corner of this handkerchief are that.

So, paying attention now to the feelings in that left arm and that left hand, Matt, as the doll starts to take control. That's good. The left arm always known as the devil's arm. Always used for any kind of possession writings, although it's probably right-handed. We use the left arm. The word sinister comes from the Latin for left-handed. It has a long history of association with the occult. When I ring the bell in a moment, Matt, the doll will bring your arm up and across to the board and he will write through you just the first of those two initials nice and clearly on the board. Sengali, would you please write for us through Matt the first of the two initials on the board nice and clearly? Would you do that for us now?

[Music]

Very good. That's very good indeed. Let's do this again. Sengali, would you please write for us through Matt the second of the two initials? Do that for us now. Excellent. That's very good. And now the doll relinquishes all control. He lets go of you. Now you will feel a change happen. You'll feel a shift inside you. You'll feel a weight lifting from you. You'll feel your limbs relaxing. Your throat will open up. You'll feel that weight shifting from you. And when you're quite ready to come back to us, you'll be able to open your eyes.

Thank you, Matt. Let me just take this from you. So, you wrote there. I think that's a D and an S now, or at least your arm wrote that. What does that, what did that feel like? Did it feel like you were moving your own arm? No, it felt really, really weird, like, um, like I lost control of it and I was sort of, well, I was sort of trying to fight it, but it was just drawing my hand to the board and it felt really shaky, like I couldn't write properly. Against your own will. You were trying to stop it. Yeah. Yeah.

Stand up for me. Let me show you what happened. So, yes, you wrote a D and an S. Right. Now, if you just, just come and stand here for me, face in the front. This is a 200-year-old lady's handkerchief. So, they would use this in the act. They said that it was Fond of Ash's childhood sweethearts. Probably wasn't true, but there are two initials on it. Can you read those initials? D S. D and an S.

Um, I'm going to hang on to you for a second. I think you are very good at this. I think you've got a natural affinity for this and, um, which is essentially it's empathy. It's having people with high levels of empathy are very good at this, which is a nice thing. Also ties in with bravery, being brave. Um, yeah, we'll do it tonight. We'll do it tonight with Matt. Um, get a couple of chairs please on the table and the stuff as well. Excellent. Sit yourself down, Matt. You'll enjoy this. I don't get to do this very often. Um, good. Yes. Okay. I will, we need to, I need this. I need to give you this. Thank you. Also rather handy. We're filming this tonight. So, could you put that on your right hand for me? Um, thank you very much. Just get this up on the screen. Thank you.

All right. So, put your right hand on your lap. Put the left hand flat on the table. I'm just going to remove your watch if that's okay. Uh, you just need to check something quickly first. I need to check that you don't feel anything if I do this. Can't feel that, can you? No. No. Good. All right. No reason why you should, of course. This is a dead bit of wood. It feels nothing. It's a, it's a, it's an inanimate bit of wood. No sensations in there at all. It's dead.

I want you to look at this hand here. And one last time now, just let him take full control of that hand. That's good. You'll feel those movements, but it can remain on the table as he just takes full control. And as you watch the back of that hand, now he's going to make the back of the hand completely numb. As you watch, all the sensations will just drain out and down and into the table and away. As you watch the back of the hand, he is going to bring your fingers in and together. Your fingers and thumb in together at the same rate and speed that the back of the hand becomes completely numb. Those final sensations draining out and down and into the table as he brings your fingers in together. That's good. Excellent. Lovely.

Now bring up your other hand. Point the finger of this hand and just touch yourself on the arm first of all. Now you can feel that, can't you? Yep. Quite normally. It's a very thin glove, so you can feel that. Now touch the back of that hand. What's that like? I can't feel anything. You can't, can you? It's completely dead. Will you just show them? Just pinch a great big bit of skin and twist it round. Just twist it right, yank it right round. That's good. Just do that again. Just show, just show them. You can't, you can't feel it, can you? Twist it right round. You could bash it. You could pinch it. You could twist it. You could stick a needle through it. You really wouldn't feel a thing, would you? No.

And would you be prepared to do this for us? You are very good at this. I want to show you something that you will remember for the rest of your life. If I promise you that you won't feel a thing and we'll do it completely safely. Would you be happy to push a sterilized needle just through the skin and the back of the hand? Yeah. Okay. Excellent. Good. Thank you, Matt.

All right. So, a couple of health and safety points I have to adhere to as well. So, let me just, uh, put one of these on here. Is it weird? Yes. Yes. And then this here is a sterilized needle. All right. Fantastic. Yes. It's like I'm unsealing that. If you take hold of that, it is a bit of a bendy one. So, as you do it, I will steady it for you, but I'll let you do the push. I'm going to do it. You're going to do it? Yes, of course you are. Um, so look, but I'll steady it just cuz it's a bit bendy. Listen, I am just going to pinch the skin. Now, this is like you're watching me pinch the skin on someone else's hand. The whole thing is like this is happening to somebody else. So, let me just do that. Weird, isn't it?

So, look, just press the end of the needle first of all. Just come in the middle and just press it down. You quite happy. Doesn't hurt, does it? No. All right. So, look, I'll steady it. You just go right the way through. You can see it right coming right out the other side. There you go. Keep going. So, let go there for me. What goes through your head as you look at that? What's that like? What is this like? It, I just can't feel anything. Is it like looking at someone else's hand? Cuz I can't take it off the table or anything. It's just there. And in a sense, of course, it is someone else's hand at the moment.

This is also interesting. Look, if I pinch it again, if you slowly pull that out, you'll see it doesn't bleed. Just slowly because a wooden hand does not bleed. See? No blood on the needle. No blood on the skin. Let me just take this back from you. I need to seal it back up for tomorrow's show. All right, give me a hand there. I'm going to take this off there.

Now, listen. He now begins to relinquish all control. He lets go of you now completely. We will now start to feel ordinary comfortable sensations right from up here starting to come down through the arm and along and into the hand. Now just give that a moment. You'll start to get a bit of movement. Ordinary comfortable sensations. Excellent. Just come around the front for me. Now there's your watch. Just hold that for a second. Now look, you might find after a couple of minutes, sorry, that you do get like a little, um, like a little tingling sensation or a vague sense that something went on there. But I promise you, nothing uncomfortable. Are you quite happy with the fact you did that? Yep. And it didn't hurt at all. No, not one bit. Matt, thank you so much. You were fantastic. Thank you very much. Thank you, Matt. Everybody, I'll let you head back. Thank you, Matt. And of course, thank you, Spengali, ladies and gentlemen.

[Applause]

Sengali, there's Abby, whose birthday it was. Where are you, Abby? Give us a wave. Give us a wave, Abby. Would you get yourself up here? I have a birthday treat for you. Quick as you can. Let's keep it going for Abby. Up you come. Keep it going for her. Hello. Hello. Nice to meet you. Come over here for me.

We are going to reconstruct an experiment into clairvoyance. It's a type of psychic ability. Um, and we're going to do it in a birthday kind of way cuz it's your birthday. So, we will need one vital birthday ingredient for this. Now, listen very carefully, Abby. You need to catch one of these for yourself. Catch it. Hold on to it. Do not let go. But meanwhile, at the same time, if you can just help me get the rest out into the audience. Ready?

[Music]

Catch one. Help me get the rest out. Abby, if they go in the wings, you got to kick them out. Pass them back in the audience. Throw them back. Pass them back. Move them around. Pick them up off the floor. Pass them around. Move them around. Keep them going. Yes. A couple of the wings there. Great. Thank you. Move them around. Pass them around off to the sides. Get them back. Excellent. Okay. And stop. Stop the fun. Stop the fun. Stop the balloon related fun. Good. Excellent. Thank you very much. That looks more like a party.

And because it's your party, we got the best seat in the house for you. So, take a seat for me there. Thank you. Anything you say, I'm going to ask you to say it nice and clearly into the microphone. All right. Keep hold of your balloon at all times. And as an extra little treat for you because we're filming, some champagne and three Ferrero Rocher. Oh, yeah. I know what you like in Nottingham. I did my research. There you go.

All right. So, uh, we need some people to take part in our experiment. Would you stand up, please, if you got a balloon? So, you need to choose three people with balloons. I would say don't go for anyone you know. Don't go for anybody going "me, me" cuz they're normally a [ __ ] nightmare on stage. Um, and go for three people with three different colored balloons. So, nice and clearly, any three people you like the look of. Off you go. That the woman in the white dress. Do you want to start hitting up for us? Thank you. The boy in the striped shirt with the blue balloon, striped shirt, blue balloon. Is that you? No. Is that check shirt? That guy there, shirt? Yeah. Up you come, sir. Um, the pink dress there, blonde hair. Quick as you can, madam. Thank you. A round of applause for our three volunteers.

Hello. Hi. What's your name? Emma. Emma. Nice to meet you, Emma. Can you come and sit in this chair here for me? If you go in that one, Emma, on that end. Hello. Hi. What's your name? Harry. Harry. Harry, if you go in the, if you go in the one on the other end there, thank you very much. So, Harry. Emma. And you are Kelly. Kelly. Nice to meet you, Kelly. Can you go in the middle there for me? Sit yourself down.

Um, so if you just put your balloons in these sort of balloon standy things. So, are you quite happy that these three people now represent a fair and random selection of three members of our audience? If you are, a clear yes loudly into the mic. Yeah. Yes. Okay. Good. All right. Your job now is going to be to divine a four-digit number using your clairvoyant powers. So, we need this four-digit number for them to try and, uh, target in on. So this is where you come in upstairs. Two things about the number are very important. It has to be randomly generated. It also has to be a secret number that nobody could know. So if you did this in the interval, if you wrote a digit on a bit of paper, would you please take that bit of paper out now and screw it into a ball? Your job in a moment is to get that ball of paper from where you are sat into the waste paper bin, which I realize is a little bit tricky. So I'm going to come down and give you a hand. Would you stand up please with your balls of paper? Up you get. Stand up for me. Excuse me. Thank you. Let me in. Thank you very much. Thank you. Oh, very nice. Thank you for buying a program. Good. Thank you. Excellent. Are you ready? Three, two, one. Don't try. You got to throw them in. Yellow ones. Need some yellow ones. Keep them coming. Keep them [Music] coming. Okay. That's right. That's right. There's loads. Stop now. Stop. Stop. Stop. Thank you. A round of applause for our ball throwers. Nicely done. Thank you very much. Abby through. Good. Excellent. Abby, are you quite happy that was all fair and above board? Yes. Yes. Yes. Stand up for me. Then you're going to throw some out to the people here in the front row. All right. If Abby throws you a ball of paper, do not unravel it. You got to keep it screwed up in a ball. All right. So, you're going to throw balls of paper to people in the front. Couple of rows. We'll do these. Yeah. One at a time. We'll do them one at a time. Just take one for me. So, we're going to spread them out a bit. So, if you pass that down there for me. Thank you. Take another one. So, I'm going to spread them out as much as possible. So, someone right up that end. Thank you very much. Yep. Lovely. Do catch them. And another one. Take another one. Great. Thank you very much. Good. Come and sit down for me.

So, would you be happy, Abby, if we took that now as a four-digit number? So, if we went, "What have we got?" Is it red first? Hold up. What do you got? Red. What's next? Yellow, and then green, and then blue. Would you be quite happy that that would represent a, a four, a randomly generated four-digit number and also at this point a secret number that nobody could know? Yes. Yeah. Yes. Good. Then your job is to now work out what this is using your innate clairvoyant abilities. And the way you're going to do it is by using these. These are colored numbered blocks. Little wooden blocks. We'll get them on camera so you can see. We got a green row. So, 0 to 9. We've got a red row. 0 to nine. A blue row and a yellow row. 0 to nine. Do you want to come and have a look at these? Just come around the back here for me. So, Kelly in the middle and Harry at the end. What was your name? Emma. Emma, come here. Just pick a few up. Just have a look so you can see what they are. I'll show you one as well. Thank you. Do have a look at it so you can be quite happy. You got numbers on one side, a question mark on the other, which just tells us which way around the number is. That's all that's for. Happy with that? Yep. Good. Thank you.

So, this is a real experiment. Uh, some of you may know it. And it's called the target experiment. Do have a look. It's just behind you. Turn and have a look there. 9,000 people took part in this when they did this in California. We're doing it with 1499. So, still on a fairly large scale. Lovely. You can put yourself back. Just wanted you to see exactly what you were doing here. So, here's how it'll work. The four people in the front will stand up one at a time with their balls of paper. So, the first one will be red. Then the chap will just hold, the lady will hold the red one up in the air like that. Then you will have seven seconds between you to reach forward and pick up a, a red brick first. So, the same color that you think has got the matching number. All right? And you'll put that there in front of you. Does that make sense? You're trying to match the number, except you will be doing this with the bricks face down and mixed up. So, you won't be able to see what bricks you're taking. So, if you do that for me now, just sort of mix them up. Turn them over. Swap them around. Just keep them this side of the line so you won't be able to see what numbers you're picking. The chances of them getting this right now under these conditions, blindly picking bricks to match numbers that nobody could know are astronomically small. The exact odds, if you're interested, are good. Thank you. You mix them around a bit. Good. The exact odds, if you're interested, are 1 in 280 billion 63 million 590,219. It's one in that the chances of them getting this right. There you go, sir. Cheap souvenir of the evening for you. Enjoy. All right. Good.

So, we begin. Thank you. Would you stand up with the red one, please, madam? This is our first one. Hold it up in the air. Don't open it up. The number must be secret. Hold it up in the air. Red. Go. Take a red brick. Put it in line. Good. Excellent. Sit yourself down. Next is yellow. Hold it up for me, please. Up you get. Hold it up in the air. Yellow. Go. Excellent. Nicely done. You remember you can reach across each other. Sit yourself down. Thank you. Next is green. Up you get. Thank you. Go green. Good. A bit of reaching across. That's nice. Lovely. Thank you very much. And you can sit down. You got long enough to take a bit more time if you want. And last is blue, isn't it? Hold up in the air. Blue. Make it a good one. Make it a good one. Good. Harry. Reaching right across there. Put it in line. Thank you so much. Brilliant. Beautifully done. You can sit down. Can you just bring up this cloth at the back? Just bring that up. Just cover up the remaining ones just so there's no confusion. You might need to pull them back a little bit. Brilliant. Thank you. If you go and sit back down with your balloons and a round of applause for our brick figures. Thank you. Need the four of you in the front now to open up your balls of paper. Make sure you can read the handwriting. And if people have just drawn a [ __ ] on balls, now's a really good time to say, "All right, you only care about your own color. Don't worry about anybody else's color. And if, if they've got your color wrong, just give me a no. But if they happen to have got it right, you must stand up, turn around to face the people up at the top, at the back, and shout yes for those people up there. If you don't do it really big and loud, I'm just going to make you do it again and again and again until I'm happy. So please, please go for it." All right, put some oomph into it.

So, we begin with red and we begin with Harry's choice here. Harry went for a two. Is that correct? No. Okay, never mind. All right. Uh, yellow. Who's on yellow? Five. Is that correct? No. Not a good start, Harry. Uh, green. Who's on green? A zero. Two in blue. No. That is so bad it angers me. Harry, never mind. Uh, let's see if Kelly's done any better. We have in red a one. Is that correct? Go on. Do it. Do it. Yes. Yes. Excellent. Nicely done. In yellow, a nine. No. Okay. All right. Uh, green. Good start, though. Green, six. No. Give a shout if this is right. Eight. No. All right. One out of four. Not bad. Let's do the last ones really quickly. Shout if these are right. Red. Nine. And then zero. Three in green. Zero in blue. No. No. One out of 12. Proof. Ladies and gentlemen, proof that clairvoyancy is bollocks. Thank you so much for coming and good night.

Of course, it doesn't work. Of course, it doesn't work. It actually doesn't work for very good reason. Um, which is that you had no way of seeing those numbers down there. So, the only way you could have done it is by being genuinely clairvoyant. Therefore, it doesn't work. And that's what they found out in the target experiment. But they also found out something else which is a little more interesting, which is that it can work surprisingly well. Excuse me. When you do know the numbers, but you just don't know that you know them. Like the order of the bricks because you mix them yourselves face down. Yes, but you did do that yourselves. So although of course consciously they have no idea which brick is which, unconsciously you could say, "Well, of course they do because they did it themselves. They saw it. They did it themselves. At some level they would know." And you didn't know those numbers down there because you didn't see them. But you did see these numbers here because I made you look at them just before you did the experiment. 25th of February 1968, the date of the target experiment. Remember that up there, please? 9,027 people took part. You see, you could read this here as the 25th of the 2nd, the 25th of February, 1968, and 9,027 people took part, plus these three here, bring it to a total of 9,030. They have stacked the date of the original experiment and the total number of participants. Congratulations.

But that's not all. That's not all. There's about a 100 balloons or so in the, in the room at the moment. If you shake those balloons, you will note there is something inside balloon, inside each balloon. Each balloon contains a raffle ticket. Each raffle ticket shows a four-digit number. Now, in a moment, not yet, you're going to pop them and have a look at your numbers. And one of you will have 252. Another one of you will have 1968. And a third one of you will have a raffle ticket that says 9030. I need those three of you out there. There will be three of you to stand up so we can get a microphone to you as quickly as possible. Are you ready? Apologies to all balloon phobes in the audience tonight. Fingers and ears. Start popping now. Go. 9030. 25502. 1968. 25502. 1968. 9030. Stand up, let us know who you are. Should be three of you. Quickly please. Up you get. We can get mics to you. None of you. All right, those, those three numbers must be on three raffle tickets in three balloons somewhere, somewhere in this room. Now, just think this through. Hang on. You caught the balloons at random. Yes. As they bounce through the air, you caught them at random. Yes. And then you chose these three people at random. Yes. Yeah. Into the mic. Yes. So, there's no way I could have controlled which balloons would end up on stage. Correct. Not at all. Good. Excellent. Let alone what numbers you stacked. Take a pin. Take a pin. Take a pin. Now, take your balloons out of the little sand. So, hold on to the balloons. Uh, when you pop them, make sure you pick up your own raffle ticket, but don't look at the number. Just pick it up, but do not look at the number yet. Go pop the balloons. Pick up your own raffle ticket. There's yours there, Kelly. Stand up for me, Harry. You stack 252. The day and month of the experiment. What does it say on your bit of paper in your balloon? What does it say? 252. 252. Will you show them in the front there for me, Harry? Thank you, Kelly. Up you get. 1968. New stack. What have you got? 1968. 1968. Show them in the front. 1968. And up you get. What have you got there? 903. 9030. Show them in the front there. Well done. Three out of three. You can leave your pins on the chair. You can head back to your seats. Give them a hand. Our brick stackers, the chances of that happening, thank you. The chances of that happening are astronomically small. You know that. You know, I gave you the exact odds. Can I pull that for a second? Astronomically small. Thank you very much. Are they right? Is that correct? Yeah. If you don't read those as columns going up now, but you read them as colored rows going across, they have stacked between them 280 billion 63 million 590,219. They've stacked between them the odds. Thank you. Of them stacking those odds in the first place. Thank you for coming tonight. Come here. Take a bow. Take a bow. Oh, hang on. Hang on. One last balloon. One final balloon to pop. Sorry, I completely forgot. Okay, so there is one special balloon in this room. Just come here for me. We know it's a special balloon because it has a special raffle ticket inside. And we know it's a special raffle ticket because it's got a, a little message on the back and it's the only one with a message on the back. Now, please think carefully. Did you or did you not catch that balloon entirely at random as they fell from the balloon hatch? Yes. Yeah, completely. Sure. Happy. Yeah. And you've been holding on to it ever since? Yep. You haven't let go of it? Nope. No one's taking it off you. You had it in your hand when you were throwing out the balls of paper, didn't you? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. One special balloon. About a one in a 100 chance that it's that one there. Take a pin. Okay. Pop the balloon. Pop the balloon. On the count of three. Michael, too late. Pick, pick it up into the mic. Yes or no? Is there something written on the back? No. On the back. Okay, that's just that's just gone wrong. Ah, has any Okay, has any one of you, you caught the wrong balloon? No reason to blame yourself. That's fine. Has somebody got something written on the back of their raffle ticket? Would you please just check for me? Don't say what it is. Just, just a yes if you've got something written on the back of your raffle ticket. Anybody not popped their balloon yet? Anybody still holding on to their balloon? Pardon?

[Applause]

Oh, yes. Can we get a light on that? Is that, oh, that's. Thank you. Okay. All right. I don't know. That's presuming that's not it there. Can you just check on the, can you check anything on your back of your raffle? Do you give me a yes, please. Kidding. Annette, yes. Can we get a net back out? Or Annette's probably been packed away. Could we have, we got a stick or a ladder or something? If this is your birthday balloon, you do need to see it. Do we have anything backstage? All right. Um, hang on. Um, entertain the audience. Thank you. Uh, is that long enough? Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday dear, happy birthday to you. Oh, never forget that. That's lovely. All right. Okay. All right. You do need to. This isn't going to work cuz it's not even. Oh, okay. Oh, can we open the balloon hatch? Let's open the balloon hatch. Can we open the balloon hatch? I don't know why I'm doing that. It's not even a real lever. It doesn't do anything. Just, it's not attached to anything. Can we, can we open the balloon hatch? Coops, can we open the balloon hatch? Oh, for [ __ ] sake. Okay, you, if, uh, all right, you need, if this is your balloon, you do need to see it. We're filming it and it's the end of the show and it's your birthday. [ __ ] it. You're not going to drink that. So, you stay over there. Please stay over that side. I don't really know what this is even made of. It's a real working boiler. It's very hot. If one of Christ gross God, I've broken the set. I got to be careful. I'm a borderline national treasure. Oh, wow. Look at you all. You look amazing. Okay. Uh, should have brought the broom, shouldn't I? Realize just realizing that now. Are you filming this, Coot? All right. So people can see upset. I can't believe this is happening all the night we're filming it. This is really embarrassing. I don't think this is going to. No, this is, this is rapid. There is a bar here. Hang on. This is okay. Oh, Jesus. Don't look down. Is that going to? If one of you has got the raffle ticket and you're just not saying cuz you don't want to shout out. That's okay. There's a little, the irony. I lost my shoe. Okay, go on. Of Abby, pick it up. Pop it quickly, please. Get the raffle ticket out. Take the raffle ticket to the microphone. If there's something on the back of it, you need to read out clearly and slowly and clearly into the mic what it says. If there's something on the back, happy birthday, but we still don't know the secret four-digit number. We still don't know the secret four-digit number. That's the number those people upstairs generated by writing down numbers on scraps of paper. And then those four numbers that you chose in the order that you picked them to those people in the front few rows. Let's get those four people standing up now. Stand up, please. Turn around to face the audience. Right up at the top, we are going to shout, and I mean shout at the top of your voice. Those numbers to the people, uh, in the rest of the audience at the top of your voice, please. Red, one, one, yellow, four, four, green, nine, nine, blue, nine, nine. 1499. Abby, you're going to read the raffle ticket. You're going to shout the numbers loudly. Go. 1499. 1499. The secret number and that is a red one, a yellow four, a green nine and a blue nine. That is the total number of you here in the audience tonight. Thank you to each and every one of you for coming. Thank you for plugging this place out and thank you for playing. Good night.